This year’s event is on the theme: “10 years of Oil and Gas: Challenges and Prospects.”

Dr Yaw Akoto, Board Chairman, African Business Media, speaking at the Launch said the conference continued to impact and prove its importance in the national discourse on the economic development of Ghana.

He said after 10 years of oil production and managing the significant revenues generated from petroleum, “we thought that ten years is ample time to do some introspection; to get the key players in the oil and gas industry together, along with the regulators of the industry.”

He said it was time to review what had been done so far and what should further be done to enable Ghana to achieve more and better success going forward. “Because of the importance of the oil and gas sector to the economy, we are once more having the Vice-President to grace the event as the keynote speaker,” he added.

Dr Akoto said Ghana has made significant strides since the oil discovery and production from the jubilee field, adding that, as at September 2017, 24.3 million barrels of oil had been produced.

He said the government’s engagement with the largest Oil and Gas Company, ExxonMobil was a strong indication that major International Oil Companies (IOC) would begin to flock into the country’s waters to explore at depths from 2,000 to 4,000 meters, which was impossible, without the likes of the major IOC like ExxonMobil.

He said the conference was going to have the relevant key players in the industry, constituting the panels that would be engaged in discussing the issues emanating from the sub-sector. “Government is fully represented in the strategic partnership and have the presence of the Ministry of Energy, Petroleum Commission and the Energy Commission,” he said.